why Athens and Sparta should not go to war

imagine you are back in the time of the ancient greeks, this is a letter persuading a war leader not to send athens and sparta to war
i wrote this a while ago so it is not my best i just thought that i would post it anyway

Submitted:Jul 6, 2013
Reads: 150
Comments: 1
Likes: 3

Why Athens and Sparta should not go to war

Athens and Sparta have no reason to go to war and many reasons
not to. Some people think that Sparta is planning to attack
Athens but these are just rumours and have not been confirmed yet
so we cannot be sure that Sparta are really planning to attack
us. For this reason it would be easier to remain peaceful for as
long as we can and less lives will be lost.

Also another obvious reason why we should not go is because here
in Athens we can prepare our soldiers for battle in case there is
an attack but our soldiers are not ready for a full scale war.
The Spartans have been known for their large and fierce army and
our army in not yet large enough to defeat them. So we at least
need to train up some more soldiers before we decide whether to
go to war or not. While we remain in Athens it will be easier to
train up more soldiers for wars that may come in the future. So
if Sparta attack and we have stayed here training soldiers we
have a larger chance of defeating them. That is just one of the
reasons.

Everyone knows that it would be a lot better to confirm the
rumours before acting against them. The best idea would be to
send a small group of soldiers to confirm these rumours. If these
rumours are not true and we go to war then Athens may be taken
over and it will be only us we can blame. Surly you can see that
these rumours may just have been created by our enemies to trick
us into going into war and weaken ourselves so they can attack.
To have our enemies attack while we are week could result in much
worse consequences than if Sparta attacked us. So that is another
reason.

Obviously Sparta is surrounded by mountains so by the time we got
there we would be tired out and we might not have enough energy
to battle but if we remain here the Spartans will be tired by the
time they reach us so we will have the advantage. It seems
pointless to waste our energy walking there if we can just stay
here and wait to see if Sparta do attack and if they do we will
be ready for them. This way it would be easier.

I would also like to point out that Sparta is known for its
highly skilled army. In Sparta they are focused on war and
obedience and boys are trained from the age of seven. Many people
say for one Spartan soldier you need seven other soldiers so our
army would have to be seven times as big as the Spartan army
which it isn't so our chances of surviving the battle are slim.
An attack could lead to victory for Sparta and Athens may lose
its power. I am sure none of us want this to happen so an attack
would be unnecessary and a waste of time.

My final reason is that the rumours are extremely unlikely to be
true because although they are powerful Spartans like to keep to
themselves so are unlikely to attack us. For that reason I
believe that these rumours are not true. Although Sparta likes to
keep to itself an attack might provoke them so they might attack
us if we do manage to escape. As you can see there is no reason
for us to attack Sparta and there are loads of reasons not to.